Zenobia Wrack gesperrt fuer Taucher?

LARNACA - Repercussions from the October 2010 death of a scuba diver at the Zenobia wreck off the coast of Larnaca this week prompted the Cyprus Ports Authority to forbid diving there and in any area under its jurisdiction.
Briton Catherine Vicar was pronounced dead in hospital after entering the wreck during a dive, becoming the fifth person to have been killed at the Zenobia since it sank in 1980.
Experts believe Vicar became disoriented inside the wreck, which rests on its side, and panicked after not being able to find her way out.
The Ports Authority’s decision to forbid scuba diving in the areas it is legally responsible for -- including the Zenobia as it falls within three nautical miles of Larnaca harbour -- has been criticised by the Tourism Development and Promotion of Larnaca Association, Larnaca Municipality and the Cyprus Dive Centre Association (CDCA.)
Speaking to The Cyprus Weekly yesterday, Cyprus Ports Authority general manager Yiannakis Kokkinos said the decision followed advice from the Authority’s legal counsel after members of Vicar’s family began questioning the Authority’s responsibility in her death.
“Her family and her mother in particular have been writing and asking questions. Basically they are trying to hold the Authority responsible,” Kokkinos said.
Anyone wishing to dive in the Ports Authority-controlled areas will now have to obtain special permission to do so. However, the framework for the issuing of such permits does not yet exist.
“We are discussing the formation of the necessary framework with the government,” Kokkinos said, adding that he could “not yet answer” whether permission will eventually be granted to dive centres only or also to individual divers, nor which government body would be issuing the permits.
While the CDCA received written notification of the ban on Monday, Kokkinos could not say if any more efforts would be made to inform individual divers of the policy change would be undertaken. He also confirmed that any other wrecks falling within the Ports Authority jurisdiction were also affected by the policy change but that wrecks further offshore were not affected.
Also speaking to the paper yesterday, CDCA President Andy Varoshiotis said his association had been informed of the change by fax on Monday.
“It came out of the blue, we had not been informed that this was even being considered,” he said, adding that the CDCA had taken measures to warn divers of the dangers following Vicar’s death, including making proposals on how further deaths could be avoided and putting up signs.
“It was a very tragic and we have every sympathy for the loss of life but this decision by the Cyprus Ports Authority is something that will be very destructive to Cyprus’ tourism product,” Varoshiotis said.
He said divers were left in limbo because they now faced jail time and/or fines if they chose to ignore the Authority’s decision, but had no way to request permission to dive in the off-limit waters until provisions were made in the law for the creation of an application procedure.
“We are preparing a reaction to this decision,” he added.
The Tourism Development and Promotion of Larnaca Association, Larnaca Municipality and CDCA, and other involved parties, have also asked the Authority’s to lift the ban, at least until other options have been discussed.

update

http://www.cyprus-mail.com/zenobia/zenobia-diving-ban-lifted/20120302

Zenobia diving ban lifted

By Poly Pantelides Published on March 2, 2012

THE CYPRUS Port Authority (CPA) decided to lift a diving ban for the Zenobia shipwreck following a strong reaction by interested parties who were furious over last week’s ban announcement.
“The CPA will issue temporary licences for the remainder of the year to all diving schools, organised bodies and individuals wanting to dive the Zenobia,” the CPA’s general director, Yiannakis Kokkinos told the Mail yesterday.
The CPA met with relevant parties to determine how to regulate diving in the Zenobia instead of banning it outright as the CPA seemed to originally intend.
The Cyprus Dive Centre Association (CDCA) was informed by the CPA last week that diving in the Zenobia or anywhere else falling under the CPA’s jurisdiction (three nautical miles) was banned.
The news took many parties including the Cyprus Tourism Organisation (CTO) and the Larnaca municipality by surprise with mayor Andreas Louroudjiadis calling the decision “rushed and arbitrary”.
The CPA said that divers and diving schools now needed to get a licence however there was no explanation of what the procedure entailed and it was understood that the CPA had effectively banned diving on the wreck.
The CDCA extracted a promise from the CPA that they would come back to them this week with more information.
Kokkinos told the Mail last week they banned diving because the family of a woman who died while diving in 2010 considered them “responsible for her death”.
Catherine Vicar, 33, ran out of air while diving and was found unconscious in the engine room of the shipwreck in October 2010.
Kokkinos said that the CPA “did not change its position.”
“The aim is to ensure the safety of divers,” Kokkinos said adding however that Vicar’s death may have been an “indirect reason” to ban diving.
The CPA will give licences only to those who “strictly follow safety rules,” Kokkinos said adding that any fees would be nominal.
Kokkinos said that the more general problem still existed of regulating the industry and ensuring a legal framework supersedes the sport (still discussed at the House).
The Zenobia, is a popular wreck dive and lies just off the Larnaca coast. Thousands come to Cyprus to dive it every year. It has been listed as one of the top ten diving wrecks in the world.
To learn more on how to get a diving licence application form, call the CPA at 22817200.